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Kelly

Williamson

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Growing Up
I was raised in Zionsville, Indiana, the youngest of 3 girls, and divided my time between swimming, soccer, gymnastics and of course some learning thrown in there. I started swimming and playing soccer at age 4, and I was constantly saying to my parents “I can do it MYSELF.” I was stubborn and extremely active. By age 10, I started putting all of my free time into swimming, which took me through my high school years and on to University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. I swam all 4 years there, studied Kinesiology, and had an awesome college experience. I focused on the 1650, 500 free, 200 fly and 400 IM. While my improvements in the pool seemed to plateau about my Junior year, I still loved the sport and once I finished Senior year, I was left thinking “What now?”
Olympic Dreams…Or Not
I started doing triathlons the summer after finishing swimming, all local events, and discovered what fun they were. I said that I would ‘not take it seriously’, but when I was given a chance to move to Colorado Springs in 2003 and train at the Olympic Training Center, I could not pass it up. I moved to the mountains (which was my ultimate goal!) and trained there through 2005. I had a few big success’, winning Pan American Championships in 2002 and qualifying for the World Championship Team in 2002 as well. I had no idea what I was doing and I am not quite sure how I did these two things, I think in large part due to being young, naive and simply doing what I was told. In 2004, I was starting to realize that my heart was not with the Olympic format racing; I just did not enjoy the drafting and the feeling that your race all depended upon tactics and external factors. I have always liked to do my own thing, be given my own space, and accomplish my goals individually. This seemed to show, and in 2005, a bike crash (resulting in a double compound fracture of my left arm, and then 3 surgeries in 8 months) seemed a good transition point in my life and my career.
Colorado to Texas & Going Longer
My husband Derick and I moved to Austin, TX in 2006, much to (yet again) my resistance, as he was headed to UT for Grad School. I was honestly a bit sick to my stomach moving to Texas from living in Manitou Springs, CO; but we have been beyond pleasantly surprised with this AMAZING town. I began dabbling in the longer racing, while also doing some online coaching on the side. I tackled my first marathon in 2008, my second marathon in 2009, and finally an Ironman in 2010 (Coeur d’Alene). I love the 70.3 distance races yet I realized that I just had to give this Ironman thing a shot; it was an unknown, and to me that it exciting. I was 3rd at my first ever Ironman in Coeur d’Alene (9:39) and qualified for Kona, finishing in 15th overall female in 2010 (9:36). I saw my first 70.3 victories in 2010 (Branson & Steelhead 70.3), a few more in 2011 (San Juan 70.3 & Buffalo Springs 70.3) while finishing 2nd at Muncie 70.3 and Boulder 70.3. I proved to have some talent for Ironman as well, finishing 2nd at Ironman Texas (9:07) and went on to Kona for a 13th place finish (9:29).
2012 has started off with a bang and I just hope to continue this progress; stay healthy, enjoy myself and continue to push the limits of what my body is capable of doing. Along with big results come big goals…and no doubt, I’ll attack them with the same excitement, intensity and focus that I have for the past 10 years.